Sunday, September 01, 2013

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

Yesterday,
a friend told me he was recently hiking in a forest and soon found himself, as
he said, “in the middle of nowhere”, and it reminded me of a somewhat strange
hope I always have when I start reading a book or a poem. As surprising as it
may sound, I hope I will feel somewhat lost as I read. I hope I often feel
befuddled, dumbfounded, and startled by what I am reading. If, when I’m reading
a short story, I feel, for awhile, like I’m “in the middle of nowhere”, I say
good for me, for then I might have the stirring experience of finding my way to
somewhere. We often forget that in order to experience illumination we have to
first be in darkness – that the contentment of new knowledge can only come after
the discontent of ignorance. If I’m never “in the middle of nowhere” when I’m
reading a poem, how can I ever feel the thrill of finding the somewhere of the
poem’s heart and soul? In a sense, reading, for me, is about walking into
darkness so I can better appreciate the light when it comes. For that reason, I
guess I don’t especially enjoy the “easy” books I sometimes read – books that are
filled, you might say, with easily noticeable light – because then very little
finding, unearthing, uncovering, or stumbling upon is possible. I take the most
pleasure in books that puzzle me with their shadows and obscurity, and in poems
that sometimes conceal their meanings in an exciting kind of darkness, because
then, there’s always the possibility of some sudden and even spectacular light
ahead.

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"To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle." -- Walt Whitman

I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

Visitors to This Blog, June 12, 2009-

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom: "The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett